Nearly

LG&E Energy said last week its exit from the speculativeenergy marketing business is nearly complete. The company, whichwas among the top 10 largest power marketers and top 20 largest gasmarketers last year, completed four groups of portfolio salestransactions that are designed to offset a $232 million secondquarter loss suffered when LG&E was forced to cover a powermarketing agreement when power prices spiked to $7,000/MWh in June.

LG&ampE Energy said last week its exit from the speculativeenergy marketing business is nearly complete. The company, whichwas among the top-10 largest power marketers and top-20 largest gasmarketers last year, completed four groups of portfolio salestransactions that are designed to offset a $232 millionsecond-quarter loss suffered when LG&ampE was forced to cover apower marketing agreement when power prices spiked to $7,000/MWh inJune.

Reviewing its nearly five years of weekly natural gas storagesurveys, the American Gas Assoc. (AGA) said its numbers generallyhave tracked the more rigorously compiled monthly surveys by theEnergy Information Administration (EIA) and the AGA survey hasbecome an industry standard.

The futures market roared back to life on Monday, nearlyrecouping losses registered on Friday by trading 6.7 cents higherto settle at $1.945. Traders continued to cite a strong technicaloutlook coupled with increasingly bullish fundamental factors as areason for the advances.

Mitchell Energy & Development has grown its gas reserves toan all-time high and increased combined oil and gas reserves bynearly 10% over the last six months by acquiring producingproperties in Limestone and Colorado counties in Texas.

Canadian prices were strong Thursday, but it was a verydifferent market south of the border. Nearly all U.S. points werefalling between a nickel and a dime in what several sources agreedwas a “very quiet” trading day near the end of a quiet tradingweek. One marketer said he thinks everybody in the industry wantsto go play golf and say, “See you Sept. 1.”

Wednesday’s cash market was almost a carbon copy ofTuesday’s-flat to about a nickel higher at the great majority ofpoints but going lower in the Rockies. About the only differencewas in California numbers, which were flat to slightly higherWednesday instead of joining the Rockies in softening.

A double-digit drop Tuesday on the futures screen had nearly allsources anticipating softer cash prices Wednesday. They were right,at least in Eastern markets where most points fell by amounts oneither side of a nickel. But markets in the West were surprisinglyfirm. With the exception of Permian Basin and Waha gas in theSouthwest, which joined the East in fallbacks of about a nickel,the West was essentially flat to a few cents higher.

Nearly all points were “flat to up a smidge” Tuesday, as onemarketer described it. But the consensus among sources was thatprices will be coming down hard today, based on the Nymex screen’sbig downturn Tuesday. In fact, the cash reversal had alreadystarted in Tuesday’s late trading as some pipes dropped as much asa nickel from their heights.